Tag Archives: Blue Whale

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Ron LeValley was on a pelagic trip out of Fort Bragg when he spotted a Blue Whale. In the first photo the Blue Whale is surfacing.

Here you see the tiny dorsal fin. Since the Blue Whale is believed to be the largest animal ever to live on earth, it's rather ironic that the dorsal fin is so small.

The tail is big though!

What a thrill this must have been to be so close to this huge Blue Whale!

Thanks to Ron for allowing me to share his photos with  you here. To see much more of Ron's nature photography, here is his website: http://levalleyphoto.com/home/

 

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Ron LeValley went on a pelagic trip out of Fort Bragg. He, and the others with him, did not see many birds, but they did see two Blue whales quite close to their boat. In the first photo, the whale had just spouted. And in the second photo the big whale is descending.

blue-whale-off-fort-bragg-by-ron-levalley blue-whale-came-close-to-our-boat-by-ron-levalleyTo see a Blue whale, the largest creature of them all, is incredibly exciting. Here are three photos Ron took a few years ago, also on a pelagic trip. The first shows you a blow, the second shows the Blue whale's tiny dorsal fin, and the last shows you a Blue whale's tail.

blue-whale-spout-by-ron-levalley a-blue-whales-small-dorsal-fin-by-ron-levalley blue-whales-tale-by-ron-levalleyUnless you are at the Farallon Islands/Cordell Banks, you are not likely to see more than two Blue whales at a time. They very rarely breach, like Gray whales and Humpback whales do; they are just too big.

Thanks to Ron for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Ron's nature photography, here is his website: http://levalleyphoto.com/home/

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Last Thursday Allen Vinson had his camera in hand when he and Craig Gilliland spotted a huge spout.

The tall spout of a Blue Whale by Allen Vinson

Then a second whale appeared.

Two Blue Whales by Allen Vinson

I wonder if this might be a mother/calf pair. The Blue Whales were quite a ways out - Allen was using his long lens to get these photos. Here are a few more looks.

Blue Whale 2 by Allen Vinson Blue Whale 3 by Allen Vinson

This last photo shows you what Allen and Craig were seeing from the bluffs. This is the time of year we are more likely to see a Blue Whale, the largest creature on earth. Very much endangered still, as their numbers have been slow to increase after whaling was stopped.

It's a wonderful sighting, that's for sure. And two Minke Whales were spotted earlier the same day.

Thanks to Allen for allowing me to share his photos with you here.

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With the ocean looking like glass last Saturday, there were a lot of great sightings. The greatest of them all was the sighting of Blue Whales. A mother and her calf were seen off of The Sea Ranch.

Jodi Smith, of Naked Whale Research, went out of Fort Bragg and found another Blue Whale.

Blue Whales are the largest animal on earth. And they are on the endangered species list, as their recovery from the days of whaling has been slow. To see a mother with a calf is such a good sign.
To Jodi's joy she also saw several Northern Right Whale Dophins.
 They rose next to the boat and rode the bow for a while. You can read about Jodi's excellent day on the water on her blog at: http://orcinusorca.wix.com/nawhare-temp/apps/blog
And to learn more about Jodi's Naked Whale Research, which studies Killer Whales, here is that website:
Thanks to Jodi for allowing me to share her photos with you here.

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Ron took a boat out of Noyo Harbor. He and the others on board got to see Humpbacks and a few Blue Whales.

Here you see the behemouth spouting.

And below you can see its mottled back. Ron tells me you can identify individual Blue Whales by the patterns on its back. 

Here is the Blue Whale's very small dorsal fin.

And here's a photo of a Blue Whale's tail. 

You won't see Blue Whales come out of the water much. They don't - probably can't - breach like Humpbacks or Gray Whales as they are so huge. They are extremely endangered as they try to recover from intense whaling of years past.

A reference book I enjoy is "Whales and other Marine Mammals of California and Baja" by Tamara Eder. She writes that at birth a Blue Whale weighs about 2.5 tons and is 23 feet long. An adult can weigh up to 200 tons (181,000 kg) and be up to 110 feet (34 m) long.

I was told some years ago that if you see an island in the ocean where there wasn't one before, you've just seen a Blue Whale.

Thanks to Ron for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Ron's nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.levalleyphoto.com/home/